A Satisfying End to 2023

Happy New Year.

I'm getting this post out a few hours later than usual because I spent New Year's Eve refining and submitting an anthology of my short stories - with a Dec. 31 deadline. I'd been thinking of creating an anthology for a long time, but didn't realize I had more than enough stories to do so. Once I sent it off, I stayed up until morning working on copyrighting stories that hadn't been yet. As I was doing that, I realized I wanted to swap out one of the stories for one that hadn't made it into the manuscript. Since it's already submitted, that's not an immediate option, but I've made a note for pre-publication. Whether or not that publisher takes the book, their deadline got me to pull it together - a satisfying end to 2023.

Looking back, I accomplished quite a bit this year:

1. I helped my son move twice - first from near me to about ten hours away, then a little closer (but not much). At least he's near his brother now, so I can visit both at the same time. It's only one long day's drive.

2. I put my place up for sale, thinking there was nothing to tie me here, looking at real houses and applying for jobs back in NY. After a few months in a sluggish market, I decided to settle in and make the place mine. I painted the roof with insulating paint and remodeled the sunroom.

3. Meanwhile, I got books and screenplays into contests and kept several short stories submitted at all times. The screenplays don't announce winners until sometime in the next couple months, but Tough Times made it to the finals in the YA category of Kindle Book Awards. The anthology decision will be announced later this summer.

4. I also updated my website, and then got this blog going twice a week and linked it to Facebook and Instagram. I even "boosted" a couple Facebook posts. First steps on the way to improved marketing.

5. I found a critique group online that's helping me with a novel I first wrote in 1981 - I'm aging the characters and making it more contemporary.

6. I started going to a local writer's group and unintentionally became the leader - though I've drafted an executive committee to assist.

7. My income improved primarily through writing gigs, a few editing gigs, and teaching an online reading/writing course for the community college as an adjunct - and developing another course for them. Royalties still trickle in as much as can be expected with virtually no marketing.

So, looking back:The first two items above were unexpected and demanded focus for months - and they were not part of my 2023 plan. Neither was taking charge of a writer's group, which is time-intensive. Seeing the request for anthology manuscripts was a December gift that spurred action on something from the back burner.

Lesson learned: whatever I plan, however I prioritize today, expect to adapt.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

This photo is from 2021. For the first time in thirty years, my brother and I spoke - for eleven hours. I am so glad we did, because he passed away this week and I'm left with good memories of that day.

He was born seven years after "the family" and I came along another seven years after that - so our siblings were grown up and out of the house before I started school. We didn't always have smiles for each other, but that eleven hours of talking covered a lot of ground and I'm left understanding him - and myself - better for it. I am most definitely thankful for having that time with him.

I am also thankful that my kids are planning extreme travel next week so we can all be together for about twenty-four hours, barring illness, travel, and work complications.

I'm linking three other posts - one a short story, another about my family, and OMG, which is another reason I give thanks - they all lived.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Let's blame covid

The end of 2018, I sold my home and moved in with my son in Needles, CA. The plan was to help him with his fixer for a year or so while I decided where to live next. His siblings with children both live in areas I can't afford. I had a minor foot surgery scheduled for the end of January 2020. Once that healed, I was going to find my own home again!

Of course it didn't happen that way. Instead of house hunting, I was shopping online and wearing my painter's mask when I had to go to the grocery store. I watched more television in 2020 than I have at any other time in my life, binge-watching series I'd heard of but had never seen and calling it research for screenwriting. Right. A lot of it was simple inertia. But I wasn't a complete slug. I kept working on my novels and editing.

I finished up 2020 by publishing Peg's Story: Detours and Running Away: Maggie's Story. Peg's the mom in my first novel, Running Away, and readers had asked for her story. The character took over at the bus station and shocked me by bringing trafficking and other issues I hadn't anticipated into her story, so it took forever to write. Maggie's Story is a mildly revised version of Running Away - primarily updating quotes from Peg's journal to match the new book.

In March 2021, I published Tough Times, which is Michael Dolan McCarthy's story lightly revised, re-titled, and given a fresh cover. I can't believe I never posted here about these books! I've done a wee bit of promotion and sales are happening, but I really need to do better. I have entered the books in some contests and have submitted several short stories to publications. No great results yet, but a lot of it's still out there. I'm continuing to write and submit. I've also done some editing this year.

One good thing about COVID - Capital Film Arts Alliance in Sacramento went online with their screenwriter and other meetings. I got to rejoin and participate from eight hours away! That got me working on my scripts, too. I prepped and submitted a feature-length script of Tough Times and three shorts to the Austin Writers Conference and Film Festival. They had over 14,000 entries for a handful of awards. No, I didn't win. I did attend the conference in October, which was exhausting and exhilarating all at once.

Other bits about 2021:

I spent about ten weeks on the road - one to the burn area in Northern California and two cross-country trips - going to a reunion, visiting family, looking at real estate, and going to the conference in Austin.

I've spent a lot of time on cars and insurance. On June 9th I made the wrong left turn and a truck killed my Kia Rio. No injuries, but I was due to leave on the first big trip, so I bought my son's 2020 Mitsubishi Mirage. On June 30, I was driving on a dark road in Wisconsin when a really big deer tried to fly over the hood. While he smashed into the windshield, his forward momentum carried him on across the car instead of his landing in my lap, so I wasn’t hurt. However, that was the end of that car, too. Not my normal June.

I finished the trip in my first automatic - a 2010 Ford Escape. Still getting used to it; still searching real estate; still writing and editing while I figure out the design of my future.